Tyler Sexton has been an overcomer since the day he was born. So have his parents, Lisa and Kevin.
When Tyler was born at 28 weeks, doctors immediately placed him in an incubator and rushed him by helicopter to a hospital four hours away. They told Lisa and Kevin that Tyler’s lungs could collapse, and he’d die mid-flight. Tyler survived, but a long road of physical trouble, including 16 surgeries, lay ahead.
At 18 months, Tyler was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Lisa was so devastated that she closed every blind and every curtain in her house and cried, mourning the loss of the healthy baby she’d expected to be born and the perfect life she’d dreamed of having, now lost.
After two days, Lisa found her strength in Christ and with it the ability to rise up and move forward. She threw open her curtains – and her heart – and told Tyler, “You are going to be the cutest, sweetest, smartest, most darling little boy with cerebral palsy. And I’m going to be proud of you.”
As Tyler grew, Lisa and Kevin dared him to dream big and to reach for the moon. Their belief in him transformed his entire life by teaching him to turn “I can’t” into “I can.” Tyler not only learned to walk, to drive, and achieve two of the highest qualifications in the realm of scuba diving, he is also now Doctor Tyler Sexton, a pediatrician.
If you’ve ever questioned the positive influence love can have in a child’s life, you’ll want to join me for Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I invited Lisa and Tyler to join me in the studio to tell their amazing story.